Okinawa – Rendez-Vous in Space

On January 1st, 2001, considered by some as the true first day of the new Millennium, Jean Michel Jarre, together with the Japanese mega-artist and producer, Tetsuya TK Komuro, gave a concert in Okinawa. The concert, entitled Rendez-vous in Space, was a tribute to the science-fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke, who was a close friend of Jarre’s. Prior to show, Jarre visited Clarke in Sri Lanka and recorded him on video. At the concert the recordings were used as an introduction to each number. Clarke could be seen on the big screen where he talked about such matters as the possibility of life on other planets and sex in a weightless state. None of Jarre’s classic hits were performed at the concert, but exclusively new material created by The Vizitors, which Jarre and TK had decided to call themselves for the occasion. The opening sequence of the concert was based on the theme from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is one of Arthur C. Clarke’s literary classics, for which Clarke acknowledges to have been greatly inspired by Jarre’s music.